Literary Voice

Literary voice is an element of a story or writing that can be discussed in any type of research paper. Most commonly, literary voice is discussed in relation to works of literature and Paper Masters can explicate any work of literature you need explained in relation to the literary voice that the work uses.

When scholars or critics refer to an author's "literary voice," they are referring to the combination of style that marks a work of literature as unique to that author. A writer's literary voice is a combination of factors, as individual as different musical instruments. In much the same way that listeners can differentiate between a guitar solo played by Jimi Hendrix and a guitar solo played by Eric Clapton, so too does Charles Dickens literary voice differ from Stephen Kings literary voice.

Literary Voice and Stylistic Factors

Literary voice emerges in a writer from a combination of stylistic factors, such as:

• Syntax
• Diction
• Punctuation
• Dialogue
• Character development

Young writers are often encouraged to experiment with language, and try various techniques in order to discover their own unique literary voice. There are others, however, who believe that a unique literary voice develops naturally over the course of a writing career.

In many ways, literary voice is the most elusive of writing properties. It is often easy to distinguish one writer's voice from another, but it is an entirely different thing to develop one's own literary voice. Many young writers make the mistake of trying to sound like a favorite author, like Maya Angelou or Herman Melville, for example, and their writing becomes flat, lifeless imitation. The development of a unique literary voice may be what separates great writers from mediocre ones.